Collins says 'I feel like this is my team now'

Nancy Gay, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, January 2, 2005

Photo: Jed Jacobsohn

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SAN FRANCISCO - AUGUST 14: Quarterback Kerry Collins #5 of the Oakland Raiders celebrates after throwing a touchdown against the San Francisco 49ers during a pre-season game on August 14, 2004 at 3Com Park in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Kerry Collins Ran on: 08-15-2004
The Raiders' Marques Tuiasosopo tries to elude the 49ers' Chris Demaree. Tuiasosopo was 10-for-16 passing for 191 yards and a touchdown. Ran on: 08-15-2004
The Raiders' Marques Tuiasosopo tries to elude the 49ers' Chris Demaree. Tuiasosopo was 10-for-16 passing for 191 yards and a touchdown. less

SAN FRANCISCO - AUGUST 14: Quarterback Kerry Collins #5 of the Oakland Raiders celebrates after throwing a touchdown against the San Francisco 49ers during a pre-season game on August 14, 2004 at 3Com Park in ... more

Photo: Jed Jacobsohn

Collins says 'I feel like this is my team now'

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In Kerry Collins' mind, every snap he took this season was a bonus. He was, after all, supposed to be the Raiders' backup quarterback, despite the big free agent contract and the boos and catcalls that seemed to follow starter Rich Gannon every time he took the field.

In the NFL, however, the No. 2 has to be able to drop the clipboard and run the offense flawlessly, in an instant. It wasn't that simple for Collins, 31, the former New York Giants starter whose journey across the country to embrace a new team, new coaching staff and new offensive system was more difficult than he or the Raiders could have imagined.

But Collins' statistics, from his first seven appearances (five touchdowns, 12 interceptions) to his final six starts (16 TDs, five INTs) heading into today's season finale against Jacksonville, have had a direct bearing on how well the 5-10 Raiders have fared. Or, at least how competitive they have been.

Next year, with Gannon expected to announce his retirement during the offseason, there is little debate as to which quarterback will run the Raiders' offense.

"I'd expect him to be able to play an entire season, like he has the last seven or eight games," Turner said of Collins. "And because of the teams we've played and how the games have gone, he's gotten a lot of chances to get the ball up the field and get big plays and touchdowns."

Like all quarterbacks, Collins needs regular snaps to be effective, and his short stint as a spectator this season made his transition to starter that much tougher.

When Gannon went down with what figures to be a career-ending neck fracture Sept. 26 vs. Tampa Bay, many Raiders followers greeted Collins as the second coming of Daryle Lamonica. Only two seasons removed from passing for over 4,000 yards, Collins, the thinking went, would consistently throw deep touchdowns and make the short-pass West Coast attack a thing of the past.

Or so everyone thought.

"It turned out to be probably more different than I thought it was going to be," said Collins, who had to train himself to excel in Turner's newly implemented vertical scheme, which proved a surprising departure from the system he'd been accustomed to in New York.

Rather than focus on one or two hot receivers, Turner asked his quarterbacks to scan the field quickly for multiple reads. It could be the wideout sprinting deep down the flat, the flanker cutting across the middle, the running back turning for the screen, the tight end six yards out, exiting a blocking assignment and waiting for the ball. Everyone was fair game.

"I've had to retrain my brain in a sense to forget about how I used to read plays, even though they may be very similar, and read them the way Norv wants me to read them," Collins said.

What did Turner ask him to do?

"For example, in New York, we may have called a play and the clear out might be just a clear out," Collins explained. "We may never even think about reading him. He was a clear out and that's what he was. (But) Norv incorporates that guy. He's an option."

Collins also had to focus on making sound decisions as he scanned the field for those myriad reads. Earlier this season, he would throw as if on autopilot, counting on a receiver to be in the area or to have finished his route. The result, naturally, was too much left to chance, and too many interceptions.

"For a quarterback in my mind, it's a process of elimination. You try and eliminate as many things so you can make the right decision," Collins said. "I missed some things and eventually, like I said, through working and being out there and seeing (a receiver) and started to look for him and started to see him. I think that's helping it, and it's helped Norv I think be more comfortable, calling some of those things because he knew that I was getting more on the same page."

Teammates stayed solidly behind their new quarterback, aware that he was working out the kinks of an offensive system that was foreign to him.

"Kerry has settled down a lot since early in the year, when he first came in. I think everybody has figured out the system and feels comfortable with the system, feels comfortable with everyone else," left tackle Barry Sims said.

And while it is assumed that Collins will be in command in 2005, from minicamps to organized team activities to training camp in Napa, he isn't counting on anything.

"I don't have a good feel. I haven't really thought about it. I don't know what Rich's plans are. I haven't talked to him about it and no one has really talked about it," said Collins, who has thrown for 3,353 yards with a completion percentage of 57.8.

"But I will say this: I feel like this is my team now.

"We've gone through a lot this year and we've improved a lot and I feel strongly about wanting to be the quarterback here and wanting to lead this team to a championship. That to me is what they brought me here for and that's what I want to do."

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